Omikron shows consequences: Thousands of flights are canceled over Christmas - also because of sick pilots

Created: 12/25/2021, 5:07 PM

A passenger wears mouth and nose protection while sitting in the Delta Airlines waiting area at Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport.

The chairs in the waiting area are marked so that the minimum distance to contain the corona pandemic is maintained.

© Charlie Riedel / dpa

Numerous flights were canceled worldwide, the USA was particularly hard hit.

There, the number of corona cases soared because of Omikron.

Berlin / Washington, DC - Over Christmas, numerous flights worldwide were canceled due to pilots reported sick. US air traffic was particularly affected, as the flight data website Flight Aware showed on Saturday. On Christmas Day alone, more than 2,300 flights were canceled worldwide, around 800 of them in the USA. On Christmas Eve there had already been a similar number.

According to US media reports, the highly contagious Omikron variant is the main cause.

The

for example, quoted a Delta Airlines spokeswoman as citing "a combination of problems, including weather and omicron-related problems."

A spokesman for the airline United names sickness reports from crew members as the main cause: "The nationwide increase in Omikron cases this week had a direct impact on our crews and the people who keep our operations going." Omikron is now in the USA dominant.

The Corona * case numbers have skyrocketed recently.

Omikron: Numerous flight cancellations over Christmas - especially USA affected

Lufthansa also announced on the Thursday before Christmas that it would have to cancel six pairs of flights from the outward and return flights between 23 and 26 December because so many pilots had called in sick. It remains that the number of canceled flights has not increased further, said a spokesman for the German press agency on Saturday. In addition to a connection to Tokyo, the German airline also primarily hits US * destinations such as Houston, Boston and Washington. The company did not want to speculate about a connection with Omikron, as Lufthansa was not informed about the nature of the illnesses.

Flight Aware also showed hundreds of canceled flights worldwide for Boxing Day.

According to its own information, Flight Aware tracks aircraft worldwide and records their take-off times, landing times and delay information from the air traffic control systems of states as well as with their own ground stations and with satellites.

In Germany, dangers to the “critical infrastructure” posed by Omikron have been debated for a few days *.